Boehner vague on farm bill direction

With the handwriting already on the barn wall, Speaker John Boehner conceded Thursday that the House will go home for the elections without dealing with either a new five-year farm bill or an extension of the current 2008 law that expires Sept. 30.

“We will deal with the farm bill after the election,” Boehner told reporters, but the Ohio Republican wasn’t willing to be more specific about what course that will take.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas told POLITICO this week that he has yet to receive an explicit promise that his five-year bill will be called up in the lame-duck session. Absent that, many believe that Boehner is just letting the clock run out until he has the votes for a one-year extension of current policy.

The speaker’s remarks provided little clarity. And aides said Boehner’s commitment was only to deal with the farm issue, not any precise form.

“The current situation that we face is that we’ve got people who believe there’s not enough reform in the farm bill that came out of committee,” Boehner said. “We’ve got others who believe there’s too much reform in the bill that came out of the committee, in our opinion leaving less than 218 votes to pass either an extension or to consider the entire farm bill.